NZB Vortex

[Gary McGath]

NZB Vortex seems to be the most popular Usenet reader for the Mac, so I
blew $10 on it through the App store, hoping it would work better than
Thunderbird has lately.

After half an hour of fighting with it, I can't figure out how to access
a newsgroup with it. It's the reductio ad absurdem of burying
functionality in "features." I can optimize downloads, filter spam, set
up RSS feeds -- except I can't get at any newsgroups to do those things
with them.

Has anyone else used this software? Is the basic functionality buried in
plain sight somewhere?

Thunderbird with eternal-september (which I'm using right now) is still
being erratic, and I'm sure it's losing a lot of posts.

[Torbjorn Lindgren]

Post by Gary McGath
NZB Vortex seems to be the most popular Usenet reader for the Mac, so I
blew $10 on it through the App store, hoping it would work better than
Thunderbird has lately.

From their own site it doesn't appear to BE a Usenet reader, it's a
"Usenet downloader" and specifically only does NZB downloads, these
contains a long list of message-id that it downloads from one or more
Usenet servers then combines to a binary download.

Post by Gary McGath
After half an hour of fighting with it, I can't figure out how to access
a newsgroup with it. It's the reductio ad absurdem of burying
functionality in "features." I can optimize downloads, filter spam, set
up RSS feeds -- except I can't get at any newsgroups to do those things
with them.

None of that would be expected to be in a NZB-only file downloader
such as NZB Vortex.

Post by Gary McGath
Has anyone else used this software? Is the basic functionality buried in
plain sight somewhere?

I doubt it, the description seems pretty clear that it does NZB
downloads and nothing else.

Post by Gary McGath
Thunderbird with eternal-september (which I'm using right now) is still
being erratic, and I'm sure it's losing a lot of posts.

Eternal September has been unstable lately, I doubt switching
newsreader will help much.

They're migrating to a new server to fix the problem they've had,
reader.eternal-september.com. Their website is now back and mentions
that news.eternal-september.org will point to that as soon as the DNS
changes take place.

I'm using that since a couple of days and I have to say that for me
(trn4 on Linux) is mostly back to normal, a little slow now and then
but nothing like before.

The other option is to get an account elsewhere, there are a few other
cheap or free providers (most with their own gotchas).

[Gary McGath]

Post by Torbjorn Lindgren

Post by Gary McGath
NZB Vortex seems to be the most popular Usenet reader for the Mac, so I
blew $10 on it through the App store, hoping it would work better than
Thunderbird has lately.

From their own site it doesn't appear to BE a Usenet reader, it's a
"Usenet downloader" and specifically only does NZB downloads, these
contains a long list of message-id that it downloads from one or more
Usenet servers then combines to a binary download.

The description on the App Store doesn't say it's a Usenet reader, but
the top reviews refer to it as a "1-stop application to handle
everything Usenet" and "the standard app when installing a Mac and
searching newsgroups." I wasn't too confident, but there really isn't
anything that looks better on the App Store.

[Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy]

Post by Gary McGath

Post by Torbjorn Lindgren

Post by Gary McGath
NZB Vortex seems to be the most popular Usenet reader for the
Mac, so I blew $10 on it through the App store, hoping it
would work better than Thunderbird has lately.

From their own site it doesn't appear to BE a Usenet reader,
it's a
"Usenet downloader" and specifically only does NZB downloads,
these contains a long list of message-id that it downloads from
one or more Usenet servers then combines to a binary download.

The description on the App Store doesn't say it's a Usenet
reader, but the top reviews refer to it as a "1-stop application
to handle everything Usenet"

That does rather imply that it should perform traditional usenet
functions, like reading and replying to text posts. "Everything" is
pretty comprehensive.
--
Terry Austin

Vacation photos from Iceland:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/QaXQkB

"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

[Paul Rubin]

Post by Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
That does rather imply that it should perform traditional usenet
functions, like reading and replying to text posts. "Everything" is
pretty comprehensive.

I think they have in mind stuff like pulling together binary downloads
that are split into large numbers of files using erasure codes. For
a certain population, Usenet is a sideways form of Bittorrent.

My favorite news reader is Gnus in Emacs. There's a Mac port of Emacs
that you can download for free.

[Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy]

Post by Paul Rubin

Post by Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
That does rather imply that it should perform traditional
usenet functions, like reading and replying to text posts.
"Everything" is pretty comprehensive.

I think they have in mind stuff like pulling together binary
downloads that are split into large numbers of files using
erasure codes. For a certain population, Usenet is a sideways
form of Bittorrent.

No doubt. But it's sloppy, if not dishonest, marketing to call that
"everything usenet."
--
Terry Austin

Vacation photos from Iceland:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/QaXQkB

"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

[Arthur T.]

Post by Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy

Post by Paul Rubin

Post by Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
That does rather imply that it should perform traditional
usenet functions, like reading and replying to text posts.
"Everything" is pretty comprehensive.

I think they have in mind stuff like pulling together binary
downloads that are split into large numbers of files using
erasure codes. For a certain population, Usenet is a sideways
form of Bittorrent.

No doubt. But it's sloppy, if not dishonest, marketing to call that
"everything usenet."

As noted upthread, the site's own documentation says it's for
NZBs. It was a reviewer who said it was for "everything Usenet".